Around 5:30am, Ella woke me up because she had puked on the floor. Thankfully I had brought 2 towels with me so I used one of them to clean up the mess. I tossed that towel in a garbage bag and then threw it outside on the deck. Amazingly none of the other girls woke up during this time. Around 6:30am, I texted Nurse Ann and told her what was going on. By this time Ella had puked again. Nurse Ann was wondering if Ella needed her meds since she was in charge of dispensing those during camp. I told her that she can never take her pills while she's in the middle of a migraine episode. From past experience I knew Ella was most likely going to be sick until around dinner time that night. I wasn't sure how to handle this situation because I was supposed to be present for all the girls, but at the same time my own daughter was sick. I was feeling pulled in two many directions and I was stressed out. I was also super sad because I knew that Ella was going to lose out on a whole day of fun at camp. Wednesday was the big day where they had a bunch of fun activities planned.
Around 7:30am I ended up moving Ella downstairs so she could sleep in the nurses room. Nurse Ann would be able to keep an eye on her so I could be present with the rest of the group. I did stopped by every hour or so to check on her. She was able to finally get a little bit of sleep since she said she really didn't sleep at all the night before. She did puke a few more times while in the nurses room, but eventually she stopped and then I slowly let her start taking sips of water. I was also able to get some crackers from the kitchen so she could try eating those if she felt like it.
After getting Ella moved down to the nurses room, I was able to grab a quick bite for breakfast and then run to the leaders meeting. At those meetings we always discussed what was going well and shifts that needed to be made. They also would ask us for testimonies of things happening with our students. During this sessions we had a breakout time where we could pray for each other. There was this one lady I was just drawn to. Her name was Kendal...I don't even know if I'm spelling that correctly, but she was just amazing. She prayed over me and the whole situation with Ella. She even gave me a hug which I desperately needed at that minute. It was totally the Lord showing up in physical form to let me know that He sees me and He's going to carry me through. It was pretty awesome!
Going into camp I thought it was going to be all about the youth and their relationship growing closer to the Lord and while that was definitely my hope and prayer; that was not the Lord's only goal at all. The Lord most definitely wanted to work through some things with me and it was around this time that I knew He was going to call me to take a huge step of faith in regards to me trusting Him.
Chapel that morning was just what I needed since I was so emotional. I just cried out to the Lord and let the tears fall.
Our students loved this hammock and they sure put it to the test with how many people were on it at one time. Surprisingly....it never did break!
Caitlynn got to be the Unicorn on this day!
More hammock time!
We loved our mascot...Unicorns are the best!
The guys representing yellow team. They really did come up with all sorts of ways to wear those bandanas.
I wore our team flag as a cape. I honestly was having the best time at camp. Even though it was a stressful day it was also so much fun! That day our game was call Tipsy Waitress....it was where you had to spin around a bunch of times, then walk as fast as you could towards a bucket while hold a tray with cup of water on it. Then you would pour the water into the bucket. After that it would move to the next person on your team. You had to do that over and over until the bucket was full. We came in 2nd on that game so we did get some points for our team.
All throughout the week the students were trying to find mini Jesus' that had been hidden all around the common areas. People were supposed to turn in the mini Jesus' they found each day and then they would be rehidden so they could be found the next day. Some people weren't turning them in because they wanted to keep them. There were 100 mini Jesus' in all and they were each worth 50 points. There was also a fire ornament that went with the camp theme "Blaze" that was worth 2000 points. A bunch of our youth found mini Jesus', but one day Josiah found the fire. It was so exciting! I'm in the background of this pictures standing in front of the carpet ball table. I had a lot of fun playing that game with the kids...even though it was super hot!
This day was the day of big events. On the schedule was a color chalk battle, water balloon fight and a water relay race. While us leaders were in the field getting ready for the color chalk battle the workers were also setting up the big inflatable slides.
Us leaders stood in a huge circle. We all had a bag of chalk in our teams color...except team black...they had a different color. Our camp shirts were black so that would not have shown up at all.
That's a big bag of yellow chalk!
They gathered all the kids in the center of the circle and then said go.
It was crazy town! Students running all over throwing chalk on each other. It was really fun!
I was sure that the color was going to show up really well on our black camp shirts, but surprisingly it didn't really stick. I did get hit in the leg with the some of the orange chalk and that did stick on my skin and made it look like I had some terrible disease! :)
Our team didn't look too bad afterwards, but I think that had to do more with the fact that this was our first year at this camp. The other churches knew each other so they went after other people instead of us.
After they posed for this group picture I thought it would be fun to have them all run at me and take a video.
What better time to have a water balloon fight when you just got covered with a bunch of chalk and you need to have it washed off.
While the game organizers were getting the balloons ready we just congregated together as a team for a group picture.
The kids were pretty pumped up from having so much fun. I just noticed that the leader that prayed for me, Kendal, is right behind Jack. Such a sweet lady!
I really loved the camp shirts...they have a dove on them that's overlayed with a flame and it also has our camp theme verse reference on it...Acts 1:8.
They chose to do black shirts because last year when they had the water balloon fight the camp shirts were white and that ended up being an issue.
The field was full of students running around like crazy....I surprisingly didn't get hit with any water balloons!
Here's just a glimpse of the fun....as you can see Pastor got in on the action as well!
The workers that were trying to put up in the inflatables were having some problems getting them to cooperate.
A bunch of students ran over there to help. I'm not sure if it actually was them or just the fact that the air pressure finally moved the monster size slide into place, but the youth were pretty stoked about it.
After the chalk battle and the water balloon fight it was time for a water relay race. I said it was a big day of fun events. Although in all honestly if Ella had to miss out on one day this one probably was the best one for her to miss out on. She's not really into games and such so she probably wouldn't have participated anyways.
All the teams lined up and ready to go!
I guess I was in a video taking mood that day!
That night we were the first group to serve at dinner time. That meant we had to arrive 30 minutes before dinner to help them get the food line all set up. We made sure the water and lemonade was filled up. A couple of the kids got to be servers in the food line. We also made sure the salad area was stocked.
Andrew and Aidry had fun being servers! Dinner was super yummy...it was chicken alfredo with these yummy cheesy breadsticks. We ate well all week long!
After dinner I went in to check on Ella and sure enough she was making a come back right around the time I figured she would. Her body is pretty much like clockwork in that regard. I figured she would feel even better if she got out of the nurses room, took a shower and got into some clean pajamas. So around 6pm I helped her slowly move upstairs into one of the shower rooms. Earlier she was super nauseas anytime she moved, but she was doing okay now. My concern though was that she might pass out since she hadn't really had any fluids in over 24 hours.
I ended up texting the nurses to let her know that I took her to upstairs to shower. She hadn't been in the room when I stopped by to check on Ella. I figured I would go down and get the rest of Ella's belongs after I finished helping her. Once she was cleaned up and in new pajamas I went downstairs to grab her pillows and blankets so I could make up her bed. Thankfully she did not puke on any of her bedding. While I was grabbing stuff from the nurses room, Nurse Ann was talking with some students about the gifts of the Spirit...specifically tongues. I heard just a snippet of that conversation since I was wanting to get back to Ella quickly, but it will come into play the next night.
One of the best parts of getting Ella back into our room was how sweet the other girls were. They were so happy to see her and it really brightened Ella's mood. For a while on Wednesday she just wanted her Daddy to come pick her up and take her home, but I knew she needed to stay. I didn't want her to miss out on this awesome time with friends, but more importantly time with God. Michael and I had talked and he said if she still felt bad on Thursday morning he'd drive out and pick her up.
That night at chapel we won for the cleanest room. We were so excited! We had really went above and beyond in hopes of getting that GOAT statue and it paid off!
That night I really felt the Holy Spirit telling me to be still. Usually during worship, I'm up clapping, raising my hands and fully immersed in worship. This night though the Lord was telling me to sit down and just be. I was sitting right next to Mikaela & Caitlynn and it ended up being such a sweet time. Mikaela was pretty new to our youth group so I didn't really know her story much and she hadn't really fully come out of her shell yet. This night since I just sat down next to her and was present she opened up to me and started asking some really deep questions about the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. It was such a sweet and fruitful time and I was so thankful that I listened to the Lord and had that opportunity with her. The Lord is so awesome!
The funny thing was during worship I also noticed Kendal sitting down to worship which she was normally right up front with all the youth fully immersed. The next morning during our leaders meeting she shared how the Lord had told her to just sit down and be still as well. It just goes to show don't judge anyone for how they are worshipping the Lord even if it's not how you think they should be or would normally worship Him...maybe just maybe they are actually following the prompting of the Holy Spirit!
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